THE BEFORELIFE

The afterlife has long been the subject of philosophical speculation but then so has the beforelife, or pre-existence. Pre-existence is the belief that each human soul exists before conception, and that at some point in time it enters or is placed by God into a body.

Traducianism and creationism are alternative views which contend that the individual human soul does not come into existence until conception.  Traducianism holds that the soul is derived from the souls of the individual's parents, while creationism maintains that the soul is created directly by God.  In both traducianism and creationism, the soul is reliant upon conception to come into being.

Ancient Greek thought and Islam affirm pre-existence, whereas Judaism and Christianity, which includes traducianism, generally deny it.

Vedanta is different.  In Vedanta, the world is manifested by a transcendental consciousness known as the Brahman.  Everything manifested carries with it part of the transcendental consciousness. This part is called the Atman.

The Atman is not the same thing as a soul, as defined in other religions, even though "Atman" and "soul" are, for convenience, used interchangeably in Vedanta.

The Atman is continuous and eternal, not created, and in this way, in only this way, can it be said to pre-exist.  Hence in the Bhagavad Gita, the avatar Krishna says to the warrior Arjuna, "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be."

VAIRAGYA

Vairagya is a Sanskrit term meaning approximately dispassion, detachment, or renunciation, leading to moksha, or liberation.
 
Vairagya is a state of mind rather than a lifestyle, as it can be practiced equally well by a person with a family and a career as by a renunciate.

Vairagya does not mean a suppression of or a repulsion for material objects.  Rather is it a technique of discrimination or discernment whereby a person is attracted more and more to the inner spiritual state which effectively reduces his interest in the material world.
 
The person balances his inner and outer attractions by seeing that both are expressions of the One, of Brahman.

In the highest stage of Vairagya, the person is no longer tempted by objects.  The senses are entirely quiet. 

It is said that without Vairagya no spiritual progress is possible.

AUTHENTIC SELF

In existentialism, the extent to which a person is true to his own personality, spirit, or character, despite external pressures, is the degree to which he is authentic.  It entails the conscious self coming to terms with being in a material world and encountering external forces, pressures and influences which are very different from, and other than, itself.

In Vedanta, a person is authentic when he realizes that he is not who he thinks he is.  Most of us go to our deathbeds convinced that we are our learned self, the "I"-"me"-"mine" self.  This self is time bound; it perceives that it has a past, present, and future--the present is all it actually has--the unique particulars of which make it feel like somebody other than everybody else.

What the learned self does not see is that it IS everybody else.  Everything has one source, the Brahman, meaning that everything is the same thing, ultimately.  The personal aspect of the Brahman is called the Atman.  The Atman is our true identity, our eternal identity, our authentic self.

YOGA VASISTHA

Yoga Vasistha is considered one of the most important scriptures of the Vedantic philosophy.  It is a syncretic work, containing elements of Vedanta, Jainism, Yoga, Samkhya (one of the six original schools of Hinduism), Saiva Siddhanta (a school of Hinduism based on the worship of Shiva), and Mahayana Buddhism.  It sums up the spiritual process:

Longing for the Truth:  The aspirant is able to distinguish between the permanent and the impermanent; cultivates a dislike for worldly pleasures; acquires mastery over his physical and mental organism; and feels a deep yearning to be free from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

Right Inquiry:  The aspirant has thoroughly considered what he has read and heard spiritually, and his realized it in his life.

Attenuation, or the Thinning out of Mental Activities:  The aspirant's mind abandons the many, and remains fixed on the One.

Attainment of Reality:  The aspirant is now called a "knower of Brahman."  In these first four stages he has been subject to three forms of karma, including karma he created in prior lives that is awaiting expression in a future life; karma from his past lives that has begun to bear fruit in the present life, in which it must be exhausted; and karma he has generated in the present life that will manifest in the future.  He, meantime, has been practicing a form of contemplation where consciousness of duality still exists.

Unaffected by Anything:  The aspirant performs his necessary duties without a sense of involvement.

Sees Brahman Everywhere:  To the aspirant, external things do not appear to exist now; the distinction between subject and object has dissolved; tasks get performed without any sense of doership.  Two of the forms of karma, the karma he created in previous lives that is awaiting expression in a future life, and karma he generated in the present life that will manifest in the future, are now destroyed.  Only a small amount of the third form of karma, that from his past lives that has begun to bear fruit in the present life, in which it must be exhausted, remains.

Perpetual Samadhi:  The aspirant no longer performs activities, either by his will or by the will of others.  He has entered a state of pure unitary consciousness, ineffable peace.

KAIVALYA

Kaivalya is a term used in Raja Yoga that Vivekananda describes this way:  “When the soul (Atman) realizes that it depends on nothing in the universe, from gods to the lowest atom, that is called kaivalya, meaning isolation, perfection.”

Kaivalya is also defined as solitude or detachment, the ultimate goal of Raja Yoga.  Raja Yoga is one of the four yogas or paths to union with the Divine. 

There are actually many yogas, but the four main ones, as set down in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, are Bhakti Yoga, the way of devotion, Karma Yoga, the way of works, Jnana Yoga, the way of knowledge, and Raja Yoga, the way of concentration or control of the mind. 

Vivekananda stated that kaivalya is attained when the mind has been made as pure as the Atman itself. 

INEVITABILITY OF AWAKENING

Movies, sports events, relationships, etc. excite us, but they are not satisfying in the end because they are fleeting.  They quickly feel second best to us.  What we really want is God, who is eternal, abiding, unchanging, and the experience of which is beyond all other human experiences.

Everyone wants God but most of us are unaware that we want Him.  We know we want something, something more IT than what we’ve got, but realizing what IT is takes time.  This is ironic because we are actively seeking God from the day we are born, insofar as the Atman in us is drawn to its source, the Brahman (God), like a stream to the sea.

As Vedanta puts it, we live many lifetimes, all of which are flowing toward spiritual awakening, toward finding God.  Finding God is inevitable for each of us as this is what we are flowing toward.  This stream we are in is the nature of existence, ultimately of God Himself.  God is bringing us to Him.

Vivekananda stated, “A tremendous stream is flowing toward the ocean, carrying us all along with it; and though like straws and scraps of paper we may at times float aimlessly about, in the long run we are all sure to join the ocean of God.”

Vedanta teaches that there is a way to speed up the awakening process, and it is by steadfast spiritual practice, particularly by meditation.  Like Prabhavananda used to say all the time, “Meditate, meditate, meditate.”  A person must be especially inspired to do so, needless to say.   This is likely someone who is at the threshold, at God’s doorstep already.  All that remains for him is to step through.

ENDLESS KNOT

 
The endless knot or eternal knot is a closed, graphic symbol composed of right-angled, intertwined lines. Overlapping without a beginning or an end, it symbolizes many things, particularly in Buddhism.  For example it can mean:

The Buddha's endless wisdom and compassion.

Samsara, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. 
 
The eternal continuum of mind.

Principally, however, it represents how all phenomena are joined together as a closed cycle of cause and effect.

Cause and effect in Buddhism is the basis of karma.  The law of karma states that every action has a consequence, and every consequence is itself an action with a consequence, and so on, without end.

Karma continues without end, except, that is, for those who, either by their own effort in this lifetime or by their spiritual evolution over many lifetimes, gain enlightenment.  Those who break the cycle of karma enter nirvana; those who don't continue in the cycle.

RECOLLECTION REVISITED

The definition of recollection in Catholicism is close to that of Vedanta.  With slight adaptation, the following is from The Catholic Encyclopedia at New Advent:

Recollection means attention to God’s presence in the heart.   It includes the withdrawal of the mind from earthly affairs in order to attend to God and Divine things.  It is an interior solitude in which the soul is alone with God.

This recollection is twofold:

• Active recollection is acquired by our own efforts aided by the ordinary grace of God.  Thus any devout person can acquire the habit of thinking of God’s presence and of fixing his attention upon Him.
• Passive recollection does not depend upon our own efforts, but is an extraordinary grace infused, inspired by God, by which He summons together the faculties of the soul and manifests His presence and his perfections; this kind of recollection is the first degree of infused contemplation, so-called.

The first kind of recollection belongs to ascetical devotion and practice.  It is necessary for all who wish to attain spiritual perfection.  Without it, it is difficult to make spiritual progress. Therefore, it is necessary to observe the means by which it may be acquired.  These are:

• silence and solitude, according to our state of life, keeping in mind, at the same time, that one may be recollected amid the duties of an active life;
• the avoidance of distracting and dissipating occupations not required by necessity.  Having a multitude of occupations is an obstacle to recollection.  A person who undertakes too much is a foolish man, it is said.
• the regular engagement of the presence of God.   As recollection is a merging of the mind with the Divine presence within us, the surest way of achieving it is to frequently recall that the soul is the temple of God.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

The phrase “unanswered questions” or “undeclared questions” in Buddhism refers to a set of common philosophical questions that the Buddha declined to answer. 

These included such issues as the origin and nature of the universe, the existence of a permanent self or soul, and life after death.

There were, according to early Buddhist texts, fourteen such questions grouped in four categories:

In the first category were questions on the existence of the world in time:  Is the world eternal, or not, or both, or neither?

The second category contained questions on the existence of the world in space:  Is the world infinite, or not, or both, or neither?

The third category included questions on personal identity:  Is the self identical with the body, or is it different than the body?

And then in the final category were questions on life and death.  Does the Tathagata (a buddha) exist after death, or not, or both, or neither?

The Buddha would not answer these questions, saying that they were like a net, and that he refused to be drawn into such a net of theories, speculations, and dogmas. 
 
He explained that it was because he was free of bondage to all theories and dogmas that he had attained liberation.  Such speculations, he said, caused a person fever, unease, bewilderment, and suffering, not the right choice.